As a nine-time State Amateur champion, Ann Swanson recognizes talent when she sees it, and she envisions great things from the youngest player in the Championship Flight of this year’s Washington State Women’s Amateur.

“She is going to be good,” Swanson said of 18-year-old Cassie McKinley. “She just needs more experience. She’s long for her size, but probably needs to sharpen up her short game, something I think she knows. I expect her to do well in this tournament.”

After the first two days, it’s full-speed ahead for the former Shorewood High School star playing in her first State Amateur. She shared the low-round (77) during Monday qualifying, and won her first match, 6 & 5 over Robin Cole, on Tuesday at Sand Point Country Club in Seattle.

“I didn’t start off quite as well (Tuesday) as I did on Monday,” said McKinley, citing match-play nerves that caused her to be a bit timid early in the round. “But I won the first and third holes, which helped my confidence, and by the sixth or seventh hole, I was pretty relaxed and able to play my game.”

McKinley’s game has been coming on strong. She reached the semi-finals of the Seattle Women’s Golf Association City Championships earlier this summer – the second match-play tournament she’s ever played – losing to a four-time champion.

Cassie McKinley gets some visual assistance on the putting line from her caddie/mom, Jill at State Amateur

The State Amateur is her third and final event before enrolling at the University of Idaho this fall.
How she wound up being a Vandal is a story in itself.

Although McKinley started playing golf when she was eight or nine years old, she never really liked the sport until her freshman year of high school. A special bond was built, but she rarely played in summer junior tournaments, and never outside of Washington.

But following her junior year at Shorewood High, Cassie entered a match-play tournament south of Portland. She lost in the first round, but met a person who suggested that she make a video of her game and send it, along with a bio, that would be posted on a website college coaches use for recruiting purposes.

It is especially beneficial for late bloomers like Cassie, who had not been recruited much at all through her junior year.

“If coaches heard of me,” she said, “they didn’t contact me. It was kind of a bummer.”

Armed with a video camera, Cassie’s dad, Buz, put together a 7 ½ minute film-clip — attached at the bottom of this story.

The video and bio were delivered and posted on the Internet soon after McKinley’s senior year started. Waiting for a response was agonizing.

“I was checking my email every day hoping I would get one,” she said. “When I got my first one, I was so excited. It was from a Division II school in Georgia.”

Other emails arrived, but they also were from smaller colleges.

“It was nice to hear from schools,” Cassie said, “but I always wanted to go to a D-I school. So I kept my options open.”

Cassie McKinley is headed to University of Idaho this fall

Finally, a Division I school called.

“I was in class when I got a call,” she recalled. “I looked and the phone saw the weirdest area code. I had no idea where it was from.”

She was excused from class to take the call. At the other end was the women’s coach at Dartmouth.

“That was really cool, but she thought I was a junior and was recruiting me for the following year.”
A few days later, the coach at Idaho called and Cassie ended up accepting a scholarship at the Division I university.

“That video for us parents was really good because Cassie sort of blossomed late, whereas a lot of these girls had been playing competitively since she they were 10 years old,” Cassie’s mom, Jill, said. “She sort of was peaking a year too late.”

“I couldn’t be happier,” said Cassie, who is hoping to make her presence felt in Moscow right away. The top two players on the Vandal women’s golf team last year graduated, opening up a couple of spots. “I am hoping.”
Right now she is hoping the State Amateur serves as a huge stepping stone to her collegiate career and don’t count her out.

Can she win in a field that includes three former state champions, including four-time champ Leslie Folsom, who needed 20 holes to defeat 13th seeded Sue Ursino.

“To be honest, I think so,” Cassie said after Tuesday’s triumph. “The key is my head. If I believe I can do it, why not? Yesterday (Monday) I played great but also could have been better. To think I was tied for low, and knowing I could do better, that keeps me thinking that I have a chance to win this.

“But I have to kick it in, especially my short game. Some days, like (Monday), it was really good. I made some good chips and was putting well. Today (Tuesday), I missed a few putts. I three-putted (three holes) and am not happy about that.”

Next up is Sharon Drummey, who defeated Nancy Eglin on the 21st hole on Tuesday. Their second-round match begins at 9:15 a.m.

McKinley has played six rounds at Sand Point CC and “I really like this course. It’s just fun. It’s not too long, but it’s challenging. I have grown up in Seattle and this reminds me of Seattle Golf and Country Club (her home course). It’s not really long, but it’s tricky.”

* Jill McKinley is caddying for her daughter this week. “She’s good and it’s helpful that she’s a good putter,” Cassie said. “She mostly confirms what I see.”

* Jane Harris, who won her first match 4-and-3 over Katie Kintner on Tuesday, was 15 years old when she played in her first State Amateur. She lost her first match, but won the Seattle Women’s Golf Association Championship the following year – becoming the second-youngest champion in event history. When she turned 17, in 1980, the WSWGA enacted an 18-and-over rule, known as the “Harris Rule”. Players must be at least 18 to play.

* Pat Harbottle, the youngest SWGA champion at 14 years of age, was the guest speaker at Monday night’s dinner.

* Cassie McKinley is one of two teenagers in the State Amateur. Sammie Pless, a ninth-seed in the Second Flight, also is 18 years old. She also advanced to the second round.

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Jim Street

Jim’s 40-year sportswriting career started with the San Jose Mercury-News in 1970 and ended on a full-time basis on October 31, 2010 following a 10-year stint with MLB.com. He grew up in Dorris, Calif., several long drives from the nearest golf course. His first tee shot was a week before being inducted into the Army in 1968. Upon his return from Vietnam, where he was a war correspondent for the 9th Infantry Division, Jim took up golf semi-seriously while working for the Mercury-News and covered numerous tournaments, including the U.S. Open in 1982, when Tom Watson made the shot of his life on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach. Jim also covered several Bing Crosby Pro-Am tournaments, the women’s U.S. Open, and other golfing events in the San Francisco area. He has a 17-handicap, never had a hole-in-one, although once he came within two inches of an ace, and witnessed the first round Ken Griffey Jr. ever played – at Arizona State during Spring Training in 1990. Pebble Beach Golf Links, the Kapalua Plantation Course, Pinehurst No. 2, Spyglass Hill, Winged Foot, Torrey Pines, Medinah, Chambers Bay, North Berwick in Scotland, and Princeville are among the courses he has had the pleasure of playing. Hitting the ball down the middle of the fairway is not a strong part of Jim’s game, but he is known (in his own mind) as the best putter not on tour. Most of Jim’s writing career was spent covering Major League baseball, a tenure that started with the Oakland Athletics, who won 101 games in 1971, and ended with the Seattle Mariners, who lost 101 games in 2010. Symmetry is a wonderful thing. He currently lives in Seattle and vacations in Arizona (and other warm climates) as much as possible.